By now everyone has heard about Chester Greenwood and his earmuffs. And the caterpillar tread, and the zig-zag stitch. All enduring Maine inventions. But how about the doughnut hole?

Hanson Crockett Gregory, so the story goes, was only 16 when, to make the doughnut more palatable and less doughy, he invented the hole in the doughnut. History has it that in a storm-tossed sea on a fishing boat Gregory needed both hands to steer so he shoved his doughnut onto a wheel spoke. This was the beginning.